A List Of Brewery Sanitizer

By Marcie Goodman


It is important to keep a clean place in the brewing environment because it greatly affects the beer quality. The intended pace of the fermentation process can fail to be achieved if foreign organisms and germs are present in the wort.This will lead to a poor production and waste of resources. Therefore, in order to avoid it a brewery sanitizer must cleanse the brewing equipments so that all microorganisms are killed.

It is clear that sanitization requires much attention for the whole process to be successful. Any chance that other microorganism can dwell in the wort together with yeast should be eradicated. The wort solution is a good environment for bacteria to live and reproduce. They therefore end up spoiling the beer batch by giving it off flavors. Bacteria will not only be hidden in the fermentor but also in other brewing equipments like the funnel and siphon. Therefore, making it necessary to sanitize all items.

Several sanitizers exist for home brewers and manufactures. The most used by both types of brewers is Iodophor, which is a compound of iodized salt. The practice of using salt solution as a disinfectant has a long history in most cultures. By mixing a few ounces of iodophor with water, the resulting solution is a potent mix for bacteria and other microorganism. A salt solution interferes with cells metabolism and eventually causes death to an organism.

Iodophor adds up the list as a very effective disinfectant.Iodophor is iodine based and just a few grams of it mixed with five gallons of water can successfully sanitize equipments with a ten minute soak. The solution usually has a faint brown color that can be used as measure of its effectiveness. If this color fades then it indicates that iodine levels have dropped. It is important to use the correct amount of iodophor because using excess amounts will leads to unwanted beer flavoring.

The least expensive and widely used sanitizer is chlorine bleach. Its recommended use is two ounces of bleach per five gallons of water. This solution will have two hundred parts per million of chlorine to act as the sanitizing agent. Use of chlorine bleach requires that the equipments be thoroughly rinsed in order to minimize cases of flavoring the beer.

Another effective sanitizer is moist heat that is generated inside pressure cookers or autoclaves. These apparatus employ the use of steam under pressure to exterminate all microorganisms in less than twenty minutes.

The best sanitizer, in a scientific sense, is hydrogen peroxide. It kills all organisms that have a simple cell structure once they get in contact with it. Its only downside is that it is expensive and therefore cannot be used in large amounts.

The most experienced home brewers know what brewery sanitizer to pick. They also know how to interchange it severally depending on how often they use a certain equipment to produce batches. Therefore, a case of producing off taste beer is not a problem they encounter.




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